


Heaven and Earth

by bloodstonepentagram



Category: Preacher (TV)
Genre: Angel/Demon Relationship, Angst, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-04
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-13 01:06:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7956133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloodstonepentagram/pseuds/bloodstonepentagram
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>DeBlanc and Fiore are used to being looked down on for their relationship, but they had hoped that on Earth, things might be different.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heaven and Earth

**Author's Note:**

> This is predominantly angst and contains some homophobic language and threat of homophobic violence. If you feel like that might upset you, please don't read it. Take care of yourself.
> 
> I was intentionally pretty vague about when and where the events of this story happen. Feel free to draw your own conclusions.
> 
> Also, I wrote this in like an hour and did minimal edits, apologies for any errors.

DeBlanc and Fiore had always known that there were some things they couldn’t do. Their relationship was blasphemy, an abomination in the eyes of Heaven. It was best not to draw attention to themselves, not to do anything that would remind the heavenly host of the ugly fact of their perversion.  
  
At home, in private, it was different. The casual touches, the soft, loving words and gentle looks. They could forget, for at least a little while, that they were a demon and an angel guarding an ungodly and dangerous power. They could just be two young parents caring for their baby, singing human lullabies, using endearments, leaning against each other comfortably as they lulled Genesis to sleep.  
  
In public, however, the walls went up immediately, reflexively. They stood apart, bodies stiff, faces carefully blank. Don’t give anyone anything to question, to latch onto, to attack them for. Those who were aware of their situation tutted and looked at Fiore with disapproving pity. Seduced and led astray by one of the enemy, tied to him forever by that terrible mistake. It really went to show, didn’t it, really made you think about the price of going against the Plan, about what happened when you were too weak and too foolish to see what was in front of you.  
  
DeBlanc, meanwhile, was treated with a mix of cold hostility and even colder distain. A demon, in heaven? Confined to a small, isolated corner of it, to be sure, but allowed to live there nonetheless. Most likely that was why he did it, seduce an angel and create a monster in order to worm his way into God’s Kingdom. Amazing how he had gotten away with it.  
  
Sometimes it made Fiore want to scream. If anything, he wanted to tell them, he had been the one who had seduced DeBlanc, that he would take DeBlanc’s wit and warmth and humor over their righteous moralizing any day, and for another thing, what did any of them know about God’s Plan anyway? None of them had been privy to that information for a very long time and frankly Fiore was sick of their facade of normalcy.  
  
And then he would glance at DeBlanc, standing nearby but not too nearby and expressionless save for a hint of a scowl, and he would bite back his words because there were some fights that you just couldn’t hope to win, and it wasn’t worth it to risk upsetting the balance and losing the one good thing he still had.  
  
The only reason DeBlanc and Fiore were left in even the relative peace of their isolation was because of the fear the others had towards Genesis. Who knew what it was capable of, better to leave it in the hands of those responsible for it. A fitting penance, a neat solution to an ugly and messy problem. If only they could be banished to hell all three of them, but the monster was too dangerous to risk it falling to the enemy.  
  
So when they realized that Genesis had run away, they immediately knew exactly how much trouble they were in.  
  
“No one can find out about this,” DeBlanc said, as if it needed to be said. “We’ll just...go down there, find Genesis and bring him back before anyone’s the wiser.”  
  
“Right,” said Fiore, his jaw clenched just a little too tight, “It’ll be easy. Go down, get Genesis, come back before anyone finds out anything.”  
  
Their optimism was short-lived. Genesis proved harder to track down than either of them had suspected, and they were starting to get very worried.  
  
They were in an airplane following Genesis’s trail to a new continent. DeBlanc was leaning back in his seat, eyes closed, possibly asleep, and Fiore, bored, took a look around.  
  
He hadn’t spent much time among humans, and he still didn’t fully understand them very well. If the mission they were on weren’t so urgent, if it weren’t for Genesis, he might even enjoy being among them and learning more.  
  
His range of sight was limited to those sitting nearby, although his height gave him a slightly better vantage point. Over there was a teenager, wearing headphones and intently reading a book. There was an impatient looking man in a suit tapping furiously at a cell phone. Out of the corner of his eye, slightly behind him, he saw something that gave him pause; an older couple, a man and a woman, sitting next to each other, the woman gently leaning against the man’s shoulder as she slept, the man’s hand holding hers lightly as he looked out the window.  
It was such a comfortable gesture, so casual and intimate, the kind of gesture that Deblanc and Fiore would make without a thought in the privacy of their home but would never risk making in public. Fiore found himself wishing that just this once, he and DeBlanc could touch each other like that in public, casually, comfortingly. God only knew how much both of them needed comfort right now.  
  
It was then that Fiore had a realization. No one here knew who he and DeBlanc were. As far as they were concerned, the two of them weren’t an angel and a demon, they were just two more anonymous humans on an airplane.  
  
Suddenly feeling daring, Fiore reached out and took DeBlanc’s hand, softly, ready to pull away at any moment. After a few moments in which nobody took any notice, he relaxed a little, holding DeBlanc’s hand a little more firmly, leaning closer so that their shoulders touched.  
  
DeBlanc stirred a little, looking at Fiore in confusion. The two of them were well practiced in nonverbal communication. Fiore flicked his eyes back and forth and then ran his thumb over the back of DeBlanc’s hand. _Nobody’s watching. It’s fine._  
  
DeBlanc turned his head quickly to the neighboring seats to verify this, then turned back and gave Fiore a minute shrug. _Guess so._ He lay back again, this time allowing his head to lean slightly on Fiore’s shoulder, and within seconds he had dozed off again.  
  
Fiore’s shoulder had started falling asleep within minutes, but it still felt like a victory.

  
  


In the next couple days, they allowed themselves to be a little less restrained in public. Nothing major, old habits died hard and they really couldn’t afford to attract too much notice right now, but occasionally DeBlanc would rest a hand on Fiore’s arm or Fiore would lay his hand down on a table for DeBlanc to take. The physical contact was freeing. Sometimes Fiore would reach out and rest a hand on DeBlanc’s back, just to reassure himself that he was still there, that no one had come to separate them yet. And sometimes when the stress of the search was too much for him DeBlanc leaned his head against Fiore’s arm and let out a long sigh as if he were taking a rest from a heavy burden placed on his shoulders. They were both calmer, more centered, more at home despite being far from home and still without their child.  
  
After one particularly disheartening search in which they had just barely missed Genesis, they sat at a cafe nursing disappointing cups of coffee and feeling extremely sorry for themselves.  
  
Fiore couldn’t stop himself from speaking up. “What if we can’t find Genesis?” he said hoarsely. “What if someone else does, first, or notices we’re missing before we can get back, or..?”  
  
DeBlanc cut him off, taking his hand and lacing their fingers together. “We’ll find him, love. Don’t worry.”  
  
Fiore nodded, squeezing DeBlanc’s hand.  
  
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed someone at a nearby table glaring at them. Thinking he must be mistaken, he looked more closely. Sure enough, there was a man there, glaring a familiar glare at them. At their hands, clasped together on the table.  
  
Fiore pulled his hand away as if he’d been burned, and DeBlanc, noticing Fiore’s sudden distress, turned to look as well.  
  
The man was still glaring.  
  
In a low voice, DeBlanc said, “I think we should go.” He reached into a pocket and dropped some money on the table as the two of them stood to leave.  
  
They exited the cafe quickly, turning down an isolated side street so they could talk without eavesdroppers.  
  
“What was that?” DeBlanc hissed.  
  
“I don’t know. Do you think he recognized us?”  
  
“No, couldn’t be. He was just an ordinary human, he couldn’t possibly have known.”  
  
As they were walking, they heard someone calling out from behind them.  
  
“Hey, are you two fags or something?”  
  
They turned, and Fiore felt the air rush out of him as he realized it was the man from the cafe.  
  
“Is there some kind of problem?” DeBlanc said, as usual keeping a cooler head than Fiore.  
  
Fiore noticed with a kind of sick feeling that the man was holding a switchblade.  
  
“Yeah,” said Switchblade, giving them a nasty, twisted smile, “yeah, there is. Do you fucking faggots just think you can go walking around, rubbing your sick shit in everyone else’s faces? People are trying to eat, you know.”  
  
Human bodies were strange. Fiore could hear blood rushing in his ears as he reached for the gun tucked into his coat.  
  
“Listen,” said DeBlanc, still trying to keep things civil, “we don’t have any quarrel with you, so why don’t we just go our separate ways and forget this whole thing?”  
  
“Right, let you and your boyfriend go home and fuck each other in the ass or however you fags do it. It’s sick, two men doing that together, you know? It’s unnatural.”  
  
Fiore had heard enough. He pulled out his gun, pointed it straight at the man’s heart.  
  
“You have til the count of three to turn around and leave us alone,” he said.  
  
The man froze in place, looking taken aback. “Woah, woah. You aren’t really going to…”  
  
“One,” said Fiore.  
  
Switchblade hesitated.  
  
“I would go if I were you,” DeBlanc said. “He’s a very good shot.”  
  
“Two,” added Fiore.  
  
Switchblade held up his hands and started to back away.  
  
“Alright, fine, I’m leaving, I’m leaving.” He spit on the ground before turning and running back the way he came.  
  
Fiore put the gun away, hands shaking slightly. Then he and DeBlanc turned and began walking, keeping a stiff distance between themselves, until they finally reached their hotel room and had safely closed the door behind them.  
  
Fiore sank onto one of the beds and buried his face in his hands. He felt the bed depress slightly as DeBlanc sat next to him, and the warm weight of DeBlanc’s arm settling on his back.  
  
“It isn’t fair,” Fiore said, feeling petulant and not caring. “Whatever we do, wherever we go, there’s always something wrong with us.”  
  
DeBlanc gave him a little hug. “You’re right,” he said, sounding defeated. “It’s not fair.”  
  
“I just want to find Genesis and go home.”  
  
He felt DeBlanc’s head settle on his arm. “Me too.”


End file.
